“I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.”
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
A beautiful piece of poetry and one we do well to remember. Sharing personal thoughts and feelings with others should always be respected. We value ourselves, so we should value others who share a part of themselves with us.
Last time we went over the basics of dreams – dreams are not aside from us – or come to us from an outside source – they are part of us and part of our everyday life. But I don’t want to undervalue dreams and their importance. They can give guidance, solve problems, give balance and a lot else besides. We need to learn the language of dreams so we can begin to unlock their meaning.
It is important to record dreams in whatever way is comfortable and workable for you to do. Once you have captured the dream you can then begin working on it. I’ve found one of the easiest ways to begin is read the dream through until you have it committed to memory. Then pick-out what is the most important part of the dream to you. What stands-out the most. Try writing out the top three parts of your dream and then whittle it down to the most important part from that. Once you have that part of the dream….that is what you work with.An illustration of this is a dream I had years ago. It was a recurring dream and I dreamed it often. Needless to say it reflected my life at the point which I think you will easily see reflected in the dream itself. Anyway here’s the dream:
- My three children and I [the kids at that stage were all under 6 years old] and my dog were trapped standing on something which looked like a sand dune.
- We were above the waterline of the waves
- But it was a constant battle to keep in that condition
- My kids, the dog and I were all huddled tightly together
- And we worked together to stay above the waterline
That, pretty much, is the dream. During it I would experience all the emotions of fear, worry, anxiety and the sheer effort of keeping it altogether. I also felt exhausted all the time during the dream. So it created a tension between exhaustion and staying above the waterline. The strange thing was the difference between me and the waterline always stayed the same and we were only above it by a matter of feet.
As anyone knows being on sand is difficult. It’s harder to walk on sand or run on sand than on an ordinary surface. So the effort of keeping everything together was overwhelmingly tiring.
When I came to work the dream out I recognised the feelings in the dream. At that time I had three small kids with my youngest who was a boy with hyperactivity with add. If anyone out there has had a hyperactive child, I mean truly hyperactive, you will know how exhausting that is. I worked all the time, day and night watching my child. I had to make sure he didn’t harm himself or harm anyone else – he was like this from the time he could walk! He didn’t sleep through the night until he was three years old, so for those first years of his life, neither did I.
Big Waves
So trying to stay above the waterline was easy to relate to – it summed my life up accurately – but when I worked it out what I looked at as being the most important was that we were never swamped by the water, we never got wet from the waves, [which is peculiar as with waves theres spray] so what emerged as the most important thing for me at that time to hear – You survive. You’re going to get through this. Incredibly it was exactly that assurance that I needed to hear at that moment because there were plenty of times I didn’t think I was going to survive or more importantly my son wasn’t going to survive. I felt often that this would never end. Do you know that feeling that you cannot see daylight at the end of the tunnel? That’s how I felt.
Highlighting these steps of what is important in your dream is a quick and easy way to help get you to the kernel of your dream. Once you have what you need – write that down too. It’s important to document and keep records of these things. As it’s good to look back over records in the same way you may look back over old photos and films.
Penguins have no such problems
with waterlines. Elegantly in and out.
So there you have the basics of recording your dreams, extracting the information that you will find the most important for you and the beginning of keeping a dream journal. This huge deposit of wisdom that we have available lies for the most part, untapped, within us. Unless we find ways of reaching it – this is where it will stay.
Untapped, dormant and of no use to you at all.
We live in a world where we are eager to relinquish control to so-called ‘experts’. Yet the best ‘expert’ of yourself – is you. Plus now you have the tools to unlock that chest of wisdom which lies within you ready to help, guide, comfort and help you out of dark and sometimes difficult circumstances. It’s all you.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me comments on my blog – I love hearing from all of you. I hope you’ve enjoyed the two-part on dreams. We will revisit the subject from time-to-time.
Don’t forget to contact me if you want a blog on something of particular interest to you. So long as it’s within my realm of experience I’ll do my best for you. I mean I don’t know diddly-squat about car mechanics!
Take care – until next time.
letsgo 